Section 5 Media Marketing Blog

This past year has been a whirlwind of exciting ventures in the world of digital marketing. We've seen Instagram become the leader of the pack and discussed how to deal with Facebook's news feed algorithm. Social media has changed, brought new trends, and implemented some unspoken rules each time a new year starts. It's not like these changes are sudden or unexpected. They're usually gradual and pretty predictable. I mean who was all the surprised when Google+ shut down?

If you seriously think about it, social media is an excellent place to earn a good profit - no matter what the platform. With more than 3.5 billion users, social media is growing and claiming its place in marketing. But why is it that social media is considered to be a superstar when it comes to online business?

Have you ever wondered what makes someone choose to open one email and ignore another? Or maybe you've thought that if you had an email with the perfect subject line, people wouldn't be able to resist opening it. Heck, maybe you tried and failed and now you're stuck wondering where to even begin. We're happy to say that this post is here to help you figure out how to get your subscribers to actually open your email. And yes, it all comes down to the perfect subject line.

When was the last time you received a super personalized email from a brand? One that makes suggestions based on your preferences or previous purchases... chances are, well, never. For marketers, this seems as somewhat of a surprise. Mainly because personalization is something they often talk about a lot.

Ah, the art of storytelling. Luckily for marketers, this act can extend to advertising too. Great ads have the ability to convey the same message as a good story. You know... one that has a beginning, middle, and end. The most interesting part is that storytelling within ads will almost always consist of a different style when it comes to the delivery.

Facebook has made things a little difficult for marketers. First, there was free earned media. Then there were paid ads as a way to attract and engage millions of followers. But now they've created restricted access. Facebook has systematically reduced access to a brand's fanbase back in 2012. That's when they restricted a brand's organic reach to about 16 percent. And in 2013, the restricted it even more. A recent study shows that around 2% of a brand's fanbase actually see brands posts. A lot of marketers assume that brand reach will soon be down to zero.

It's been almost three years since Instagram launched their stories feature. Back then Snapchat had already been the leader when it came to ephemeral (disappearing) content. But back in 2017, Snapchat when their IPO hit the public, their user growth hit a wall. This was when Instagram Stories' user growth reached a rapid increase. Now, in 2018 they're holding steady at over 400 million users! This is double the amount of Snapchat users.

Back in 2016, Instagram implemented a new algorithm. Surprisingly, the algorithm actually delivers one of the most consistently relevant content compared to other social media platforms. However, this switch wasn't well-received by its users. In fact, it led to Instagram users only seeing about 90% of their friends' posts. Which is definitely a good thing, because prior to the update they were missing 50%!

By now, we all know that the best social media strategies are ones that have consistent follower growth, engagement, and likes/clicks. And Instagram is one of the best platforms to quickly achieve this! Building your brand on Instagram doesn't have to be difficult. When you compare it to SEO, it really is one of the best ways to compete against bigger brands.

Marketing has a lot of moving parts, but when it comes down to it, there are some core concepts to it. And relevancy and personalization are some of the most-implemented ones. In fact, targeted, personalized messages are proven to increase customer engagement by at least 74%. The same thing goes if you want to improve lead generation. It's a great way to nurture specific needs and interests of a brand's target audience. As well as providing incredible value.